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SHAFTER, Kern County (KPIX 5) – For the first time, California has penalized an oil company over illegal fracking activity after the discovery of a video showing wrongful dumping of the fracking discharge.

The video has now led the state to look into the drilling activity of dozens of other companies.

In October of 2012, Kern County farmer Tom Frantz knew an oil company was drilling new wells in the almond orchards near his farm in the town of Shafter. What he didn’t know was that the video he recorded of the drilling and hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking” caught Vintage Production doing something he suspected was illegal.

“My intent was to take a movie if I saw anything interesting,” Frantz told KPIX 5.